October 23, 2025 • 33 mins
Lost your office, denied by FEMA, and broke? Here’s how Brandon Adjei bounced back and saved his clients over $3 million in the process.
In this episode, Brandon shares how Hurricane Harvey nearly wiped out his firm and how pro bono work with the IRS transformed his business forever.
What we cover:
• How one client’s $1.3M IRS bill became just $150K
• The planning mistake that cost another family $300K
• What entrepreneurs get wrong about tax strategy
• Why social media advice is killing business owners
• The growth secret Brandon used (without ads, funnels, or SEO)
💼 If you’ve ever questioned your path as a CPA or entrepreneur, this episode will shift your mindset.
🔗 Connect with Brandon on LinkedIn: Brandon Adjei
🌐 Visit: cpa-asap.com
📧 Email: info@bargraphsolutions.com
This episode is brought to you by Bill.com
Ready to take your finances to the next level? See how BILL Spend & Expense can power up your business and get that free grill at http://bill.com/cfochronicles
Ready to turn your firm into a lead-generating, profit-driving machine?
We help Bookkeepers, Accountants & Fractional CFOs generate consistent local leads, book perfect-fit appointments, and close premium clients, without cold outreach or ad guesswork.
Let’s map out your growth plan together → Book your free strategy call
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_02 (00:00):
Welcome back to another episode of CFO
Chronicles, the podcast thatreveals the secrets behind
success in the world offractional CFOs and accounting
firm owners.
Our guest today is Brandon Ajay,a CPA with a passion for solving
IRS and business relatedproblems for owners and
individuals.
He believes that failure is justa stepping stone to growth and
has helped countless individualsachieve their goals.
(00:22):
Get ready to be inspired andchallenged as Brandon shares his
insights on entrepreneurship,IRS resolution, and the power of
learning from mistakes.
Brandon, it is an absolutepleasure to have you on the
show.
I've been looking forward tothis one for a while.
We had the chance to connecthere a few months ago in Utah.
(00:43):
We hit it off there.
We've rescheduled this one a fewtimes, so it's long overdue.
How are you doing, man?
SPEAKER_00 (00:50):
Man, you know, good, good.
It's uh Friday Eve and uh herein uh Houston, Texas, and uh
definitely looking forward to uhgetting this going.
SPEAKER_02 (00:59):
Awesome.
Well, look, let's dive rightinto things here.
Can you tell us about, you know,a bit about your background and
how you became a CPAspecializing in solving IRS and
business related problems.
I'm guessing dealing with theIRS is not something you maybe
thought you'd be doing growingup as a young boy.
SPEAKER_00 (01:20):
You know what?
Uh great, great question.
Yeah.
So background was more finance.
Uh, I was an intern at MerrillLynch.
I was uh doing uh financeundergrad.
It just what happened is a lotof the folks that I would work
with in the wealth managementwere were high high net worth
individuals, but they made theirmoney different ways.
But a lot of them had about 40%of them had started in public
(01:42):
accounting.
And I never really got the ideaof that until I got the
understanding from a wise personthat said, you know, accounting
is a language of business.
And in order to become fluent inthat language, you need to work
at a place uh where you canspeak it and learn what to do to
keep more of your money that youmake, you know, while you're
making it.
So uh that made a lot of sense.
I went back, got a master's inuh accounting, went to start
(02:02):
with Deloitte, uh, and got achance to on an audit
background, on the audit side,that's where I began.
Then the recession happened.
I gotten a chance to get a lotmore exposure to taxes.
Uh and so that corporate taxenvironment and resolution side,
I was able to see in the bigfirms.
Finished my career at PwC, endedup going into consulting.
(02:24):
And the consulting, I startedseeing a lot more of that as
well and advisory.
So uh, you know, it justhappenstance, right?
It's like some things are justmeant to be.
And I got a chance to uh uh, youknow, see how I could do this
and apply it to folks that maybearen't big corporate entities,
but you know, individuals orpeople that's within my circle,
you know, and that's my circlehas grown since then.
(02:46):
So yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (02:46):
Yeah, awesome.
Um, I gotta ask, when you weregrowing up in in school, like
grade school, middle school,even high school, what did you
what did you want to be or whatdid you think you might be when
you were when you were an adultand all grown up?
Got you.
SPEAKER_00 (03:01):
A thoracic surgeon, a heart surgeon.
Uh I I even when I startedcollege, I began as a
biochemistry undergrad.
And I spent a lot of my timefrom elementary through middle
and high school, primary schooland all that, uh, in the
sciences.
I was even uh I did a lot ofdifferent science experiences.
I was I was really like uh likeUrkel or something with what
(03:23):
people would probably you knowadventure.
So I was all about the sciences,and then it's just like life
happened, dude.
I ended up going into thebusiness route.
And I, you know, for me, itseemed like a lot of things in
business were were like sciencebecause there's this trend, a
lot of transactional elements inchemistry um and biology, and
and you just kind of see that.
So business kind of came easyfor me.
(03:44):
But like I said, I wanted to bea heart surgeon, I wanted to
work with either Michael DeBakeyor Dr.
Denton Cooley.
And I ended up, funny enough,still working with Dr.
Denton Cooley uh going going thebusiness route.
And I worked with him until hepassed away.
Um, and and uh that ended up youknow being a phenomenal
experience, even though I wasn'ta heart surgeon.
And you know, I but I workedwith a lot of folks in that
(04:05):
field of heart surgery.
SPEAKER_02 (04:07):
So yeah.
That's so cool.
And and I'm I'm guessing this isa really bad attempt at a joke,
but you're probably saving a lotof heartache helping people out
with the IRS.
SPEAKER_00 (04:18):
That's a good way to put it.
I like the fun.
Uh yeah, dude.
SPEAKER_02 (04:22):
Probably just lost like all of the all of the few
listeners we have on the podcastwith that joke.
SPEAKER_00 (04:27):
The funny thing is this year we probably we saved
clients in excess of two milliondollars this year, uh on the
resolution side, on theresolution side, and then a tax
strategy side, probably anotherright at a million one.
Uh so just just this year, asfar as like on the strategy and
planning side, and then that'sthe prospective aspect, and then
(04:48):
the retrospective aspect of theresolution side, uh, over two
million dollars we we we saved.
So that's it's been a phenomenaljourney.
This yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (04:56):
That's awesome.
I mean, your clients must justput you on a pedestal and and
view you like the the authorityyou must be able to bring to the
room after either showing themwhat this plan looks like or the
strategy or delivering that newsof hey, we're able to save this
much and put essentially thismuch back in your pocket.
Yeah, tell me a little bit likewhat's that like, that
(05:19):
relationship with your clients,just I guess the their reaction
to you.
I'd love to hear what what'sthat's like from your side.
SPEAKER_00 (05:28):
So I'll give you uh a couple of examples.
I'll give you an example on theuh prospective side on the on
the planning portion, and I'llgive you a uh a perspective on
the resolution side on theresolving issue for somebody.
On the prospective side, on theplanning portion, there's a
client that we had when we meton.
When we met him, this guy hadpaid the IRS uh over$300,000.
(05:49):
Um and I was like, wow, how didthat even happen?
And then so, you know, we we gota chance to look at his
situation.
We had to get to know him, wehad to get to know whatever the
him and his wife's uh uh risktolerances were and what they're
open to because whatever plan weput together, we can come up
with you know 10, 15 differentthings that can work, but these
people might only be interestedin three or four.
(06:11):
So that's cool and it's fluid inthat way, but we tailor plans
for for folks is risk tolerance,their interests, and what
they're you know, accustomed to,whatever whatever they can have
a taste for.
So when we show them, you know,we're gonna save you half a
million dollars this year, theywere floored and they couldn't
understand how this happened.
(06:32):
A lot of it, a lot of it comesfrom lack of knowledge, a lot of
it comes from lack of knowledge,or you know, this famous saying,
if you fail to if you fail toplan, then you plan to fail,
like that too.
You know, people talk aboutAmazon not paying all these
taxes, but Amazon made a planlike in the late 90s, early
2000s that is you they're seeingthe fruits of their labor, you
know, this decade and lastdecade.
(06:54):
So uh because they because theyit just it took time and they
pay taxes in other ways anyway.
Just you know, that they're thebiggest customer of USPS, which
is the postal service here inthe US.
So uh, but you know, it's justbeing able to show them where
you know the gaps can be bridgedfor them and it opens up their
eyes.
You can see the lights comingon, they love it, and then
(07:15):
they're like wanting to firewhoever they're working with, or
they have a really strongconversation with whoever
they're working with.
Yeah, yeah.
Like, how did you not know this?
You know, and and it's just thething is that's the funny thing
about the tax world.
I've used a lot of auditexperience to go look at the
internal revenue code, differentelements, and then I'm working
with other colleagues who workin this profession on the
resolution side or theprospective planning side, and
(07:37):
we we glean off of each other,right?
We sharpen each other's teeth,you know, sharpen iron, iron
sharpened iron.
So uh that gives us a chance toyou know see what else is
happening.
Even like last month or in July,really, the BBB just occurred,
uh, which really emphasize a lotof changes that's going to be
taking care uh occurrence herein the US.
Uh, a lot of modifications havetaken place, new tax laws, new
(08:00):
things.
We're we're researching that,we're digesting that, and we're
trying to see what's what'srelevant for our clients.
Now, uh, and we we help eachother in that regard as well.
But on the fact that we have uhthat prospective side, that's
great.
Now balance that against theresolution side, people that owe
the IRS money.
There was a lady that we workedwith in another state, uh, she
(08:23):
had owed unfortunately about amillion bucks to the IRS on
taxes on taxes.
And then yeah, my God, I waslooking at it myself, like, wow,
you know, you really owe thatmoney.
And then um, and but penaltiesand interest, it brought up to
like another two,$300,000.
So I think$1.3 million, she wason to the IRS.
But when we and at first, Ididn't even want to take it on,
(08:45):
but we went ahead and took iton, uh, did a lot of research,
and we saw that the what theroot cause, and that's part of
these types of things, isfinding identifying the root
cause.
We found that her businesspartner had actually um
bamboozled her and did a lot ofthings in her name that resulted
in the resolution, that resultedin the issue being presented for
(09:06):
resolution.
And so when we were able toidentify that, and we were able
to like go through the IRS andit's you know, different
departments when you're dealingwith that level of of money.
I mean, it's all kind oflegalities and things in that
regard, but we were able to uhabsolve the majority of that
from her, uh, like overtwo-thirds, over two thirds.
So she ended up, I think, owingmaybe uh God, I don't even think
(09:30):
it was 300,000.
It was like less than uh, well,it was about 300,000.
And then we were able to get alot of the penalties knocked
off.
So it ended up being like a lessthan$150,000.
She ended up on the IRS.
So like a tenth of what she owedwhen we when she met us versus
what she actually paid.
But again, it's it's that'swhere the audit background comes
in because we're like, hey, howdid this even happen?
(09:51):
We, you know, the forensicaccounting aspect, you know,
incorporating those skills thatI got from the big firms into
things like this and applyingit, it gives us a unique
perspective and a lens to helpthings make be clear for the
client.
And I'm telling you, like, likewe're like, like she loves me
now.
I mean, like we we we've helpedher so much, her life is
different, her stress.
SPEAKER_02 (10:10):
Yeah, no kidding.
SPEAKER_00 (10:11):
You know what I'm saying?
And like her time, like hertime, like she feels like she's
gotten her time back, you know.
Uh, she looks younger even.
I mean, because this took abouta year and a half to even make
happen, but she's looked likeshe's de-aged, if that's even
possible, with differentdistress.
Benjamin Button.
SPEAKER_02 (10:27):
I mean, yeah, you you help someone save like nine
hundred and some thousanddollars of taxes.
Um I would hope they would theywould have some uh some joy for
you.
So my god.
That's a that's a huge win.
I'm sure you and your team arelike thrilled with that one.
How from like a business growthperspective, how do you guys
(10:49):
find clients?
How do clients find you?
Like, walk us through how thefirm's growing for client
acquisition.
SPEAKER_00 (10:56):
Great question, great question.
So we work with uh so most ofeverything word of mouth.
Uh like a lot of things arestraight word of mouth with us.
Uh we we haven't never reallydone like a commercial or
anything like that.
Uh, but and we don't like, oh,we go fight the IRS.
That's not the situation.
We we liaise with the with theIRS and we have relationships
that's that you know, we weattend conferences, we we do a
(11:18):
lot of things where we'reengaging with the IRS regularly
on a weekly basis, honestly.
So we get familiar with a lot ofthe terminology, we get familiar
with a lot of uh the plus wework with a lot of tax attorneys
as well.
Uh so so so that being in thatspace, we're able to gauge a lot
of the temperature.
And you know, it helps us beable to know what we're talking
about, be educated, not onwhatever happened in the past,
(11:40):
but the current events andregulatory impact, and and and
speak to it in a comfortable wayconversationally.
And they can see, you know what,you know, these people aren't
messing around because we canquote IRC code, quack, chapter,
and verse and all that, but youknow, it's not who you're trying
to impress, nobody.
So we just want to be able tofind, you know, a lot of things
with the IRS because of the waytheir budgets have been with
(12:02):
different administrations thisthis this century, everybody's
cut it, you know.
So they're trying to, they makeup their their a lot of their uh
budget by penalties andinterest, and and and they've
gotten really sophisticatedabout how they approach that.
They want to see what they cancollect.
Uh, they don't want to just havethings long-standing receivables
from taxpayers.
And if they can find a way toresolve something, man, they'll
(12:25):
do it.
You'll be surprised.
The IRS is really accommodating,but then you do catch folks that
you know are are definitely uhantagonistic and all the rest,
and then you can you definitelygot to opt that you gotta deal
with, but that's where the codeand burst comes in when you say,
Oh, we know the lingo, we'renot, you know, we can, you know,
it's a lot of things.
So uh, but word of mouth, longstory short, and then at the
(12:48):
same time, we have, and the wordof mouth obviously comes from
clients that we've helped.
They have, you know, brotherwith the feather plot together,
they tell us about their friendsor their business partners.
Um, and and then we we've workedwith strategic alliances,
strategic relationships, likelike some CPAs who are in
different places who maybe theydo all they do is taxes.
They wake up and thank God fortaxes.
So you got people who just wait,wake up and happy about gap, you
(13:11):
know, uh general accountaccepted accounted principles.
Uh, but you know, we're if theysee that, hey, you know, they do
resolution, you know, we canrefer.
And so we have strategicrelationships, word of mouth.
And then um, and also likefinancial planners.
There's a lot of financialplanners who uh, you know, refer
for people to us as well.
And that and that happens.
(13:31):
I mean, like some financialplanners deal with a lot of high
net worth individuals.
And I used to work in thatspace, like I said.
I mean, I was you know, internof Merrill Lynch and whatnot
before the all the goldenparachutes and all that era.
So uh uh, you know, I mean, Istill keep in touch with people
in that dynamic.
So it's just, you know, but nowwe're looking at at actually
advertising and things that havevariety.
We're exploring the social mediaaspect, maybe doing generating
(13:55):
content, because there are a lotof people out here on social
media or on different platformsthat are saying things that may
or may not necessarily be true,or they're they're they're
they're good to say, but they'renot the right thing to apply,
you know.
It just and people are takingit, you know, verbatim like like
like vitamins, like Tylenol, Iguess, and uh and sitting up
here, you know, and and applyingit to life and they find
(14:16):
themselves in situations andthen knocking on our door, hey,
we got this issue, you know, canyou help us?
Oh, how'd you what how'd youhow'd this happen?
Oh, I was watching this video orthis, that, and the other, and
it's like, oh man.
SPEAKER_02 (14:28):
Well, I'm I'm happy to hear you say that you're
looking into other forms ofadvertising because um I guess
our seat as a marketing companywho works with accounting firms,
I gotta say the the word ofmouth might be a little
controversial or a hot take forme, but the word of mouth
(14:52):
relying on other people to growthe business, I wouldn't say
it's it's not necessarily astrategy, it's a great to have.
And if you guys are doingawesome work, amazing that
people send it over.
But does that ever stress youout at all where you're like, I
wonder if someone else is outthere telling someone about us
to and our phone's gonna ring?
SPEAKER_00 (15:10):
So you know what?
That's the thing about being anentrepreneur, the roller road,
the roller coaster income.
Um, I you know, I I I listen toJim Rohn a lot still to this
day, and Miles Monroe and otherpeople, and I hear different
sayings that they have.
I I some of these things stickwith me.
Like it's not the hours, it'snot the hours you put in, it's
what you put into those hours,right?
And so we we we look at, youknow, you know, value is always
(15:34):
gonna be out, you know, valueand quality are gonna speak for
themselves, you know, but it'sgood to have advertisement
because like when you'restarting out, you know, roller
coaster income, those rollercoaster months, it is difficult.
It is really difficult.
Um, and so you gotta find a wayto to to you know diversify your
way to communicate, get the wordout there about yourself.
(15:56):
And diversity is is definitely agreat thing to do.
Uh, so that's why I'm saying,like, what we we've had a lot of
success, and honestly, becausewe've kind of gotten over the
roller coaster hump.
SPEAKER_02 (16:06):
Over the hump, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (16:07):
But but even though they're I mean, but uh but truth
be told, anybody running apractice, they're gonna have a
time of pruning of clients,you're gonna have time to grow
the business, and you're gonnahave a time to kind of like
shrink the business level.
Like, like you just saw ElonMusk this month.
How many losses did Tesla have?
Billions.
Elon went and bought over abillion dollars worth of stock
(16:27):
back himself, right?
Cause the value to go back upand erase a lot of those losses.
So he's in a position to dothat.
Not everybody's in a position todo that if you're having you
know losses and things of thatvariety, but it's just you got
to see which clients are wastingmy time.
And that's and that's the thing.
You got to see how you valueyour time.
Um, having a cognizant, youknow, uh application and
(16:48):
definition of time to you,that's one thing we all get.
It doesn't matter what part ofthe world you are and how much
is in your bank account,everybody gets the same amount
of time.
Um, how you value your time, uh,you know, is gonna determine
what who you're gonna become andwhat you're gonna accomplish.
So uh anything that can help youbecome efficient with time, you
know, do it.
I I highly recommend it.
(17:08):
Like like AI, things of thatvariety, incorporating
technology, incorporating otherpeople that can help you just
because you have all theknowledge, you got to be able to
share it, maybe teach somebodyelse, mentor somebody else.
And those people are gonna comeback for relationships, you
know.
So uh, but I but I definitely amgetting into the uh I've
probably been a little bit shyon the on the uh social media
aspect.
That's what I'm we're breakingout of that.
(17:29):
Probably I'm gonna I'm removingthat roadblock because you in
order to get somewhere you'venever been, you got to do
something you never done.
You know, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_02 (17:35):
Well, hey, one of one of those steps coming on
this show, and we're gonna makesure this gets pushed out and
and people know more people knowabout you.
Brendan, you you talked about amassive win earlier, um, saving
a client you know almost amillion dollars in in um uh
overdue tax or a bill to theIRS.
Tell me about a time that wasreally hard in the business.
(17:58):
Like you talked about the rollercoasters.
What about one where you'rereally low on the roller
coaster?
You felt like the walls areclosing in, you pushed through,
and it's been transformationalfor you as a as a as an
individual, a business owner forthe firm.
Like, what was what stands outwhere you're like, man, I almost
gave up.
SPEAKER_00 (18:17):
100%.
All right, great.
So there was there was uh uhI'll give you an example.
When I first started thebusiness, had an office, had had
everything, had client files,and all the kind of stuff.
Um, we had this big hurricanethat hit Houston called
Hurricane Harvey, pretty muchdestroyed the city.
Uh everything was underwater.
I lost my office.
Um, and and and I I mean, I theyhave FEMA, which is basically
(18:41):
they help out, you know,individuals and businesses from
the government grants, you know,whatnot.
That's what they usually do.
Um, I had, you know, had myoffice destroyed from from FEMA,
uh, from the hurricane.
And I saw I reached out to FEMA,I reached out, you know, to the
SBA, all this other stuff.
And man, you know, the landlordwas still on a rent, insurance
(19:01):
company was still on insurance,they were filing a claim.
I I got ended up getting deniedon my FEMA claim.
There were no customers comingin because I didn't have a
facility and all of this.
And so uh what I ended up doing,I needed, I was really low.
I mean, there was no moneycoming in.
I was behind rent, I was behindon anything that I could ever,
you could ever imagine I wasbehind on, even where I was
living.
So it ended up happening.
I said, you know what, I'm gonnavolunteer.
(19:23):
And uh I got a call from theIRS, some the IRS liaison
stakeholder when the stakeholderliaison, she had called me
because she knew about me andsaid, Hey, we're here at the uh
the FEMA DRC, which is thedisaster relief center.
We need somebody to help uh helpuh people who have uh haven't
gotten their taxes filed orhaven't you know gotten an issue
(19:44):
resolved with the IRS.
And you're gonna be doing it apro bono, but we need it because
that's the only way they canthey can get a FEMA grant or or
they can get a SBA loan.
And at first I was kind oftaking it back because the place
is pretty far from my house, butI ended up going and I
volunteered, I thought it wasgonna be like two or three
weeks, and we did a lot of taxreturns, people, people who had
needed installment agreements,people who had IRS issues, we
(20:05):
were helping get those resolved,and this is all pro bono.
So I'm I'm putting gas on mycredit card to drive, you know,
40 plus miles away one way, andI'm helping all these people,
and it was really tough for mebecause you know, I wasn't
against, like I said, I wasn'tgetting any money, but what
ended up happening, I felt likeintrinsically really good about
what I was doing.
And uh there was one client thatwe were working on, she had owed
(20:28):
IRS$80,000.
This was like a profit forprofit client, actual customer.
We were still working with herissue, and we were able to get
her issue resolved, which gaveme like proof that man, we can
do this, no problem.
She got had an$80,000 balance,we got it resolved 100%.
She didn't owe the RS any moremoney, and that was going on at
the same time we were dealingwith doing all this pro bono
(20:48):
work.
But that pro bono work ended upa few months later, resulted in
people coming to us to get theirtaxes done or other uh uh
services that you know weweren't even expecting.
Because I wasn't trying to belike HBHR block and all these
other, you know, tax preppeople.
I wasn't trying to do that, Iwas just really focused on
resolution, but doing thatvolunteerism, doing that that
(21:10):
going going deeper than whatyour ditch, your your your your
your valley is, you got to godeeper, outdo your your the
depth inside of yourself, notjust your your environment,
because you because you're gonnabe you know dealing with a lot
of valleys and hills in yourcareer, but that gave me the uh
there's like an inner strength,a second wind that came in,
(21:30):
dude.
And that tax practice for forjust doing tax preparation,
dude, that that came out ofnowhere, and that's really been
consistent throughout all theseyears.
So we we we or organically grewa tax practice, but it came out
of basically giving away.
So so basically we had to die toourselves and and and give up,
let go of whatever we weretrying to do so hard, and but it
(21:53):
made room for something new tocome through, and that's a
mentality thing, that's aspiritual thing that's that's
just you know, life thing,right?
Life lesson.
So that's it.
I mean, like, like again, ouroffice got destroyed.
I ended up having to movelocations, a lot of stuff.
I got my my own FEMA claim wasdenied, my own SBA loan was
denied.
But the I'm helping other peopleget theirs, and then you know,
(22:13):
at the same time, I'm stillworking for people for a person
who you know she trusted us, Ithink January of that year, and
we were still working on thisthing.
It took a year to get the$80,000removed, but we still had a win
for her.
That that really felt good.
That was like a because it endedin December or November or
something like that for her.
But it was just that year, 2017was like pretty tough.
It was it was a pretty toughyear, it was our first year, and
uh, but then in 2018 with thewith the tax people, I didn't
(22:36):
had no idea that she was gonnabe coming to me to get their
taxes done.
It's like, it's the guy I madeat the FEMA DRC, he's the one
who helped us out.
And and man, that just you know,you got a bunch of people coming
to pay you for taxes to getprep.
And I said, Wow, you know,that's not something I plan on
doing, but I'll be open to it.
And that's the other thing,being open.
Like when I when I started thebusiness, dude, I was I was
(22:57):
doing whatever people needed,not just you know, resolution.
I I mean that's what I wanted todo, but I was but if again,
roller coaster to combat it, yougotta be flexible, right?
So if somebody needs to go tothe DMV and get a title change,
yeah, I'll go do that for you.
You know, I I would justwhatever you needed, but but
it's just you know, you yougotta have a focus.
You can't be like a a dog in ahubcat factory and getting shiny
(23:18):
objects in there.
You gotta have a focus,otherwise you lose your purpose.
So so yeah, that's amazing.
SPEAKER_02 (24:20):
That congratulations on on like going through that.
That's and getting onto theother side and facing that
adversity, because that would beyeah, I mean that's that's
really impressive.
SPEAKER_00 (24:33):
You uh one thing I'll say is as your enemy will
help define who you are as thehero.
You gotta be you're there's astory being told.
Are you the hero of the villain?
It's your story.
What who do you want to be?
You know.
Um uh Anakin Skywalker becameDog Veda.
You know, he was a hero atfirst, he became a villain.
It's just who do you want yourstory?
What do you want to be told?
Everybody gets time, you know.
(24:53):
You gotta what happens in timeis gonna define who you are, who
you become.
You know, you have goals andthings, but what you do at your
time matters.
You gotta have proper timemanagement.
SPEAKER_02 (25:03):
I I follow Alex Hermozzi a lot, and uh he speaks
he speaks a lot about um youknow having to go through all
those hard times and like goingthrough the the darkness and the
the depths because if you wereto go watch a movie and just
right away the person neverdealt with any adversity and
(25:24):
just life was amazing, wouldn'tbe much of a movie to watch.
You wouldn't be cheering theperson on, but you cheer on the
the main character, the hero whohas to go through all the dips
and learns and keeps growing andthen all of a sudden achieves
the goal.
So that's something I try toremind myself of when things get
really hard.
It's like, look, this is justit's redefining and we're just
(25:47):
gonna keep moving forward.
SPEAKER_00 (25:49):
Man, you're so right.
Wow, Al Tremose.
I'm gonna check, I'm gonna checkthem out.
SPEAKER_02 (25:52):
He's got some amazing stuff, he's got some
some really good stuff.
SPEAKER_00 (25:55):
I love that.
Always look for you know, roomfor growth, always improve, you
know.
I mean, I mean, so uh I I gleanfrom anything like that.
A lot of people we learn from,you know, they've already lived
life, you know, they've probablypassed away, or they got a video
or a book or something.
Um, you know, I try to glean,and obviously you meet people in
time who are on that journeywith you.
You're gonna find as you gothrough life, you know, when you
(26:19):
have a certain um, I guess thisis one way to put it, like the
more real you get, the moreunreal life can get.
You know, so so once as you'reon that journey, you got
mentality, you're gonna you'regonna find other people that are
maybe on that journey in anunspoken way, and y'all just
gravitate to each other, youfind each other in this life,
you know, in this universe,whatnot, and and you're gonna
(26:40):
find a collective effort.
And you know, maybe y'all canhelp each other again, sharpen
iron sharp as iron, and and andyou know, help helping each
other like grow more, get offthe milk, get on to the meat.
Um, and so you know, it just asyou begin to take those steps,
you know, you know, a thousandmile journey starts with the
first step, you know.
So as you begin to take thosesteps, you're gonna find other
(27:01):
people on that journey with you,and you you're gonna get help
when you need it, when you leastexpect it, I guess.
When you least expect it.
SPEAKER_02 (27:06):
And and being open again to receiving that help.
So I think a lot of peoplethey're they they they're closed
off, they don't want help, theywear it as uh it yeah.
So being open to being receptiveto to help.
Two more questions for you,Brandon.
Yes, sir.
Um, if if I could wave a magicwand at your business and help
(27:27):
you with anything going on, whatwould that be?
SPEAKER_00 (27:31):
Uh that's that's I guess content production, uh
help helping uh outreach,market, marketing, marketing,
some marketing, um, and and andjust like because it could help
me get the message out, likepeople let people know that we
exist.
Um and then you know, if youneed any help or or or anything
(27:51):
we can do, let us know.
I mean, not just from a from aresolution standpoint, RS
business standpoint, uhstandpoint, but even just as a
friend, uh mentor, I thinkeverybody should have a mentor
and everybody should have amentee.
You know, uh that's one thingI've also observed that that
helps people because you getcaught up in so much of whatever
(28:12):
the humdrum of whatever you'redoing, but if you don't have a
vision, um you're gonna lose thelove of it, right?
So if you have a mentor that'sguiding you, keeping you humble,
you're able to do the same withsomebody else.
And when you invest in somebodyelse, it gives you room to
outpour whatever comes in you,but you can also receive more
from another source.
So uh you can't just keep it allyou know inside.
(28:36):
You know, you gotta, if you lookat it, anything that's living
tries to be to do do its bestpotential, except for human
beings.
Like a tree is gonna grow as youknow high as it can grow, uh, a
fish is gonna swim as much asthey can swim.
Uh, you know, uh it justmountain is gonna be as strong
and bold as it can be, uhdepending on what what the
mountain was inside thatmountain.
(28:57):
But it's just you know, yougotta you gotta like you gotta
do your best.
But it's a choice too.
You know, it's a choice if youwant to be your best.
No, you don't have to be yourbest, but you know, it's highly
recommended.
If you have gifts and qualities,you gotta use them.
You know, uh you gotta use them.
So otherwise they become staleand sour.
SPEAKER_02 (29:15):
I love it.
It's so insightful.
So this is a great segue.
Um, last question for you.
What's the best piece of adviceyou've ever received?
You've already you've alreadylisted so much, but I'm just
curious if there's anything elsethat comes off the top, like the
best piece of advice you've everreceived.
SPEAKER_00 (29:32):
That's most comforting is uh you are enough.
Because that's still sometimes,dude, it's kind of hard to
believe.
But but if but if but somebodysaid I am enough, like like you
are enough.
I mean, I you it sounds verycommon and basic, but it the
realization of it is theactualization, the acceptance of
(29:53):
it, you know, that's it'ssometimes can be hard to swallow
because you're always trying toimprove and do this and the
other.
It's like, man, you know, uh,but but you like man, I am
enough.
If you have that in your mindand your concept, I think it's a
very freeing, a freeing uh uhconcept.
SPEAKER_02 (30:11):
You know, you are you know it's it's it it sounds
so calm, and it's so simple.
That's a nice reminder.
Appreciate you sharing that.
Brandon, thank you so much forfor coming on, sharing all of
your insight.
This has been amazing.
Where can everyone get in touchwith you if they want to
continue the conversation withyou?
They need your help with um anyof the services you offer, the
(30:33):
the partnerships, the the jointventures.
How can people get in touch withyou?
SPEAKER_00 (30:36):
Gotcha, gotcha, got you.
So I'm on LinkedIn.
Uh my name Brandon Ajay, uh CPA,I'm on LinkedIn, but we have a
website that we're working onright now.
It's going to be Bar GraphSolutions.
Uh uh, we call ourselves BGS,but but Bargraph Solutions uh
bar is just like sound like itsounds like a bar graph.
And then solutionsplural uh.com.
(30:57):
We're we're working on thatthat's not up right now.
The current website that we haveis uh cpa-asap uh.com.
It's a it's a https securewebsite, uh, but but that one is
kind of like the current one,but but we're but bar graph
solutions is coming up.
But I'm on LinkedIn and ifanybody emails info in F O at
(31:19):
bargraphsolutions.com, they canget us as well.
SPEAKER_02 (31:22):
Awesome.
We'll make sure that's in theshow notes if people can get in
touch with you.
Brandon, I I can't thank youenough.
It's been it was long overdue,but I'm I'm so glad we did it.
Thanks again.
SPEAKER_00 (31:30):
Worth the way, man.
You it was worth the way to talkwith you, man.
Definitely appreciate you.
Felt great with this and uh justgreat questions.
And just, you know, thank youfor letting us come on your
platform.
SPEAKER_02 (31:39):
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of CFO
Chronicles, the secrets behindsuccess.
I hope you found value intoday's conversation.
As we wrap up, I'd love for youto do two things.
First, make sure to subscribe tothis podcast so you don't miss
any future episodes.
If you enjoyed today'sdiscussion, please rate and
review the show.
It helps others discover theinsights we share here.
(32:00):
Second, if you're ready to takeyour business to the next level
and attract the high-end clientsyou deserve, head over to
accountingleadsnow.com or clickthe link in the show notes to
book your strategy call.
It's time to position yourselfas the advisor your clients
need.
And don't forget, you canconnect with me on LinkedIn to
stay up to date on what'shappening in the world of
accounting and financial growth.
We've got exciting topics comingup, so stay tuned for the next
(32:23):
episode of CFO Chronicles.
Until then, keep pushingforward.
Your growth is just onestrategic move away.
SPEAKER_01 (32:31):
Thanks for listening to CFO Chronicles, the secrets
behind success.
We hope today's episode providedvaluable strategies to help you
attract more high-payingclients.
Be sure to subscribe, follow,and share with fellow
professionals.
Connect with us on LinkedIn andleave a review or comment to
join the conversation.
(32:51):
Your feedback helps us bring youthe best insights in finance and
marketing.
Until next time, keep strivingfor success and unlocking your
business's potential.
Welcome back to another episode of CFO
Chronicles, the podcast thatreveals the secrets behind
success in the world offractional CFOs and accounting
firm owners.
Our guest today is Brandon Ajay,a CPA with a passion for solving
IRS and business relatedproblems for owners and
individuals.
He believes that failure is justa stepping stone to growth and
has helped countless individualsachieve their goals.
(00:22):
Get ready to be inspired andchallenged as Brandon shares his
insights on entrepreneurship,IRS resolution, and the power of
learning from mistakes.
Brandon, it is an absolutepleasure to have you on the
show.
I've been looking forward tothis one for a while.
We had the chance to connecthere a few months ago in Utah.
(00:43):
We hit it off there.
We've rescheduled this one a fewtimes, so it's long overdue.
How are you doing, man?
SPEAKER_00 (00:50):
Man, you know, good, good.
It's uh Friday Eve and uh herein uh Houston, Texas, and uh
definitely looking forward to uhgetting this going.
SPEAKER_02 (00:59):
Awesome.
Well, look, let's dive rightinto things here.
Can you tell us about, you know,a bit about your background and
how you became a CPAspecializing in solving IRS and
business related problems.
I'm guessing dealing with theIRS is not something you maybe
thought you'd be doing growingup as a young boy.
SPEAKER_00 (01:20):
You know what?
Uh great, great question.
Yeah.
So background was more finance.
Uh, I was an intern at MerrillLynch.
I was uh doing uh financeundergrad.
It just what happened is a lotof the folks that I would work
with in the wealth managementwere were high high net worth
individuals, but they made theirmoney different ways.
But a lot of them had about 40%of them had started in public
(01:42):
accounting.
And I never really got the ideaof that until I got the
understanding from a wise personthat said, you know, accounting
is a language of business.
And in order to become fluent inthat language, you need to work
at a place uh where you canspeak it and learn what to do to
keep more of your money that youmake, you know, while you're
making it.
So uh that made a lot of sense.
I went back, got a master's inuh accounting, went to start
(02:02):
with Deloitte, uh, and got achance to on an audit
background, on the audit side,that's where I began.
Then the recession happened.
I gotten a chance to get a lotmore exposure to taxes.
Uh and so that corporate taxenvironment and resolution side,
I was able to see in the bigfirms.
Finished my career at PwC, endedup going into consulting.
(02:24):
And the consulting, I startedseeing a lot more of that as
well and advisory.
So uh, you know, it justhappenstance, right?
It's like some things are justmeant to be.
And I got a chance to uh uh, youknow, see how I could do this
and apply it to folks that maybearen't big corporate entities,
but you know, individuals orpeople that's within my circle,
you know, and that's my circlehas grown since then.
(02:46):
So yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (02:46):
Yeah, awesome.
Um, I gotta ask, when you weregrowing up in in school, like
grade school, middle school,even high school, what did you
what did you want to be or whatdid you think you might be when
you were when you were an adultand all grown up?
Got you.
SPEAKER_00 (03:01):
A thoracic surgeon, a heart surgeon.
Uh I I even when I startedcollege, I began as a
biochemistry undergrad.
And I spent a lot of my timefrom elementary through middle
and high school, primary schooland all that, uh, in the
sciences.
I was even uh I did a lot ofdifferent science experiences.
I was I was really like uh likeUrkel or something with what
(03:23):
people would probably you knowadventure.
So I was all about the sciences,and then it's just like life
happened, dude.
I ended up going into thebusiness route.
And I, you know, for me, itseemed like a lot of things in
business were were like sciencebecause there's this trend, a
lot of transactional elements inchemistry um and biology, and
and you just kind of see that.
So business kind of came easyfor me.
(03:44):
But like I said, I wanted to bea heart surgeon, I wanted to
work with either Michael DeBakeyor Dr.
Denton Cooley.
And I ended up, funny enough,still working with Dr.
Denton Cooley uh going going thebusiness route.
And I worked with him until hepassed away.
Um, and and uh that ended up youknow being a phenomenal
experience, even though I wasn'ta heart surgeon.
And you know, I but I workedwith a lot of folks in that
(04:05):
field of heart surgery.
SPEAKER_02 (04:07):
So yeah.
That's so cool.
And and I'm I'm guessing this isa really bad attempt at a joke,
but you're probably saving a lotof heartache helping people out
with the IRS.
SPEAKER_00 (04:18):
That's a good way to put it.
I like the fun.
Uh yeah, dude.
SPEAKER_02 (04:22):
Probably just lost like all of the all of the few
listeners we have on the podcastwith that joke.
SPEAKER_00 (04:27):
The funny thing is this year we probably we saved
clients in excess of two milliondollars this year, uh on the
resolution side, on theresolution side, and then a tax
strategy side, probably anotherright at a million one.
Uh so just just this year, asfar as like on the strategy and
planning side, and then that'sthe prospective aspect, and then
(04:48):
the retrospective aspect of theresolution side, uh, over two
million dollars we we we saved.
So that's it's been a phenomenaljourney.
This yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (04:56):
That's awesome.
I mean, your clients must justput you on a pedestal and and
view you like the the authorityyou must be able to bring to the
room after either showing themwhat this plan looks like or the
strategy or delivering that newsof hey, we're able to save this
much and put essentially thismuch back in your pocket.
Yeah, tell me a little bit likewhat's that like, that
(05:19):
relationship with your clients,just I guess the their reaction
to you.
I'd love to hear what what'sthat's like from your side.
SPEAKER_00 (05:28):
So I'll give you uh a couple of examples.
I'll give you an example on theuh prospective side on the on
the planning portion, and I'llgive you a uh a perspective on
the resolution side on theresolving issue for somebody.
On the prospective side, on theplanning portion, there's a
client that we had when we meton.
When we met him, this guy hadpaid the IRS uh over$300,000.
(05:49):
Um and I was like, wow, how didthat even happen?
And then so, you know, we we gota chance to look at his
situation.
We had to get to know him, wehad to get to know whatever the
him and his wife's uh uh risktolerances were and what they're
open to because whatever plan weput together, we can come up
with you know 10, 15 differentthings that can work, but these
people might only be interestedin three or four.
(06:11):
So that's cool and it's fluid inthat way, but we tailor plans
for for folks is risk tolerance,their interests, and what
they're you know, accustomed to,whatever whatever they can have
a taste for.
So when we show them, you know,we're gonna save you half a
million dollars this year, theywere floored and they couldn't
understand how this happened.
(06:32):
A lot of it, a lot of it comesfrom lack of knowledge, a lot of
it comes from lack of knowledge,or you know, this famous saying,
if you fail to if you fail toplan, then you plan to fail,
like that too.
You know, people talk aboutAmazon not paying all these
taxes, but Amazon made a planlike in the late 90s, early
2000s that is you they're seeingthe fruits of their labor, you
know, this decade and lastdecade.
(06:54):
So uh because they because theyit just it took time and they
pay taxes in other ways anyway.
Just you know, that they're thebiggest customer of USPS, which
is the postal service here inthe US.
So uh, but you know, it's justbeing able to show them where
you know the gaps can be bridgedfor them and it opens up their
eyes.
You can see the lights comingon, they love it, and then
(07:15):
they're like wanting to firewhoever they're working with, or
they have a really strongconversation with whoever
they're working with.
Yeah, yeah.
Like, how did you not know this?
You know, and and it's just thething is that's the funny thing
about the tax world.
I've used a lot of auditexperience to go look at the
internal revenue code, differentelements, and then I'm working
with other colleagues who workin this profession on the
resolution side or theprospective planning side, and
(07:37):
we we glean off of each other,right?
We sharpen each other's teeth,you know, sharpen iron, iron
sharpened iron.
So uh that gives us a chance toyou know see what else is
happening.
Even like last month or in July,really, the BBB just occurred,
uh, which really emphasize a lotof changes that's going to be
taking care uh occurrence herein the US.
Uh, a lot of modifications havetaken place, new tax laws, new
(08:00):
things.
We're we're researching that,we're digesting that, and we're
trying to see what's what'srelevant for our clients.
Now, uh, and we we help eachother in that regard as well.
But on the fact that we have uhthat prospective side, that's
great.
Now balance that against theresolution side, people that owe
the IRS money.
There was a lady that we workedwith in another state, uh, she
(08:23):
had owed unfortunately about amillion bucks to the IRS on
taxes on taxes.
And then yeah, my God, I waslooking at it myself, like, wow,
you know, you really owe thatmoney.
And then um, and but penaltiesand interest, it brought up to
like another two,$300,000.
So I think$1.3 million, she wason to the IRS.
But when we and at first, Ididn't even want to take it on,
(08:45):
but we went ahead and took iton, uh, did a lot of research,
and we saw that the what theroot cause, and that's part of
these types of things, isfinding identifying the root
cause.
We found that her businesspartner had actually um
bamboozled her and did a lot ofthings in her name that resulted
in the resolution, that resultedin the issue being presented for
(09:06):
resolution.
And so when we were able toidentify that, and we were able
to like go through the IRS andit's you know, different
departments when you're dealingwith that level of of money.
I mean, it's all kind oflegalities and things in that
regard, but we were able to uhabsolve the majority of that
from her, uh, like overtwo-thirds, over two thirds.
So she ended up, I think, owingmaybe uh God, I don't even think
(09:30):
it was 300,000.
It was like less than uh, well,it was about 300,000.
And then we were able to get alot of the penalties knocked
off.
So it ended up being like a lessthan$150,000.
She ended up on the IRS.
So like a tenth of what she owedwhen we when she met us versus
what she actually paid.
But again, it's it's that'swhere the audit background comes
in because we're like, hey, howdid this even happen?
(09:51):
We, you know, the forensicaccounting aspect, you know,
incorporating those skills thatI got from the big firms into
things like this and applyingit, it gives us a unique
perspective and a lens to helpthings make be clear for the
client.
And I'm telling you, like, likewe're like, like she loves me
now.
I mean, like we we we've helpedher so much, her life is
different, her stress.
SPEAKER_02 (10:10):
Yeah, no kidding.
SPEAKER_00 (10:11):
You know what I'm saying?
And like her time, like hertime, like she feels like she's
gotten her time back, you know.
Uh, she looks younger even.
I mean, because this took abouta year and a half to even make
happen, but she's looked likeshe's de-aged, if that's even
possible, with differentdistress.
Benjamin Button.
SPEAKER_02 (10:27):
I mean, yeah, you you help someone save like nine
hundred and some thousanddollars of taxes.
Um I would hope they would theywould have some uh some joy for
you.
So my god.
That's a that's a huge win.
I'm sure you and your team arelike thrilled with that one.
How from like a business growthperspective, how do you guys
(10:49):
find clients?
How do clients find you?
Like, walk us through how thefirm's growing for client
acquisition.
SPEAKER_00 (10:56):
Great question, great question.
So we work with uh so most ofeverything word of mouth.
Uh like a lot of things arestraight word of mouth with us.
Uh we we haven't never reallydone like a commercial or
anything like that.
Uh, but and we don't like, oh,we go fight the IRS.
That's not the situation.
We we liaise with the with theIRS and we have relationships
that's that you know, we weattend conferences, we we do a
(11:18):
lot of things where we'reengaging with the IRS regularly
on a weekly basis, honestly.
So we get familiar with a lot ofthe terminology, we get familiar
with a lot of uh the plus wework with a lot of tax attorneys
as well.
Uh so so so that being in thatspace, we're able to gauge a lot
of the temperature.
And you know, it helps us beable to know what we're talking
about, be educated, not onwhatever happened in the past,
(11:40):
but the current events andregulatory impact, and and and
speak to it in a comfortable wayconversationally.
And they can see, you know what,you know, these people aren't
messing around because we canquote IRC code, quack, chapter,
and verse and all that, but youknow, it's not who you're trying
to impress, nobody.
So we just want to be able tofind, you know, a lot of things
with the IRS because of the waytheir budgets have been with
(12:02):
different administrations thisthis this century, everybody's
cut it, you know.
So they're trying to, they makeup their their a lot of their uh
budget by penalties andinterest, and and and they've
gotten really sophisticatedabout how they approach that.
They want to see what they cancollect.
Uh, they don't want to just havethings long-standing receivables
from taxpayers.
And if they can find a way toresolve something, man, they'll
(12:25):
do it.
You'll be surprised.
The IRS is really accommodating,but then you do catch folks that
you know are are definitely uhantagonistic and all the rest,
and then you can you definitelygot to opt that you gotta deal
with, but that's where the codeand burst comes in when you say,
Oh, we know the lingo, we'renot, you know, we can, you know,
it's a lot of things.
So uh, but word of mouth, longstory short, and then at the
(12:48):
same time, we have, and the wordof mouth obviously comes from
clients that we've helped.
They have, you know, brotherwith the feather plot together,
they tell us about their friendsor their business partners.
Um, and and then we we've workedwith strategic alliances,
strategic relationships, likelike some CPAs who are in
different places who maybe theydo all they do is taxes.
They wake up and thank God fortaxes.
So you got people who just wait,wake up and happy about gap, you
(13:11):
know, uh general accountaccepted accounted principles.
Uh, but you know, we're if theysee that, hey, you know, they do
resolution, you know, we canrefer.
And so we have strategicrelationships, word of mouth.
And then um, and also likefinancial planners.
There's a lot of financialplanners who uh, you know, refer
for people to us as well.
And that and that happens.
(13:31):
I mean, like some financialplanners deal with a lot of high
net worth individuals.
And I used to work in thatspace, like I said.
I mean, I was you know, internof Merrill Lynch and whatnot
before the all the goldenparachutes and all that era.
So uh uh, you know, I mean, Istill keep in touch with people
in that dynamic.
So it's just, you know, but nowwe're looking at at actually
advertising and things that havevariety.
We're exploring the social mediaaspect, maybe doing generating
(13:55):
content, because there are a lotof people out here on social
media or on different platformsthat are saying things that may
or may not necessarily be true,or they're they're they're
they're good to say, but they'renot the right thing to apply,
you know.
It just and people are takingit, you know, verbatim like like
like vitamins, like Tylenol, Iguess, and uh and sitting up
here, you know, and and applyingit to life and they find
(14:16):
themselves in situations andthen knocking on our door, hey,
we got this issue, you know, canyou help us?
Oh, how'd you what how'd youhow'd this happen?
Oh, I was watching this video orthis, that, and the other, and
it's like, oh man.
SPEAKER_02 (14:28):
Well, I'm I'm happy to hear you say that you're
looking into other forms ofadvertising because um I guess
our seat as a marketing companywho works with accounting firms,
I gotta say the the word ofmouth might be a little
controversial or a hot take forme, but the word of mouth
(14:52):
relying on other people to growthe business, I wouldn't say
it's it's not necessarily astrategy, it's a great to have.
And if you guys are doingawesome work, amazing that
people send it over.
But does that ever stress youout at all where you're like, I
wonder if someone else is outthere telling someone about us
to and our phone's gonna ring?
SPEAKER_00 (15:10):
So you know what?
That's the thing about being anentrepreneur, the roller road,
the roller coaster income.
Um, I you know, I I I listen toJim Rohn a lot still to this
day, and Miles Monroe and otherpeople, and I hear different
sayings that they have.
I I some of these things stickwith me.
Like it's not the hours, it'snot the hours you put in, it's
what you put into those hours,right?
And so we we we look at, youknow, you know, value is always
(15:34):
gonna be out, you know, valueand quality are gonna speak for
themselves, you know, but it'sgood to have advertisement
because like when you'restarting out, you know, roller
coaster income, those rollercoaster months, it is difficult.
It is really difficult.
Um, and so you gotta find a wayto to to you know diversify your
way to communicate, get the wordout there about yourself.
(15:56):
And diversity is is definitely agreat thing to do.
Uh, so that's why I'm saying,like, what we we've had a lot of
success, and honestly, becausewe've kind of gotten over the
roller coaster hump.
SPEAKER_02 (16:06):
Over the hump, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (16:07):
But but even though they're I mean, but uh but truth
be told, anybody running apractice, they're gonna have a
time of pruning of clients,you're gonna have time to grow
the business, and you're gonnahave a time to kind of like
shrink the business level.
Like, like you just saw ElonMusk this month.
How many losses did Tesla have?
Billions.
Elon went and bought over abillion dollars worth of stock
(16:27):
back himself, right?
Cause the value to go back upand erase a lot of those losses.
So he's in a position to dothat.
Not everybody's in a position todo that if you're having you
know losses and things of thatvariety, but it's just you got
to see which clients are wastingmy time.
And that's and that's the thing.
You got to see how you valueyour time.
Um, having a cognizant, youknow, uh application and
(16:48):
definition of time to you,that's one thing we all get.
It doesn't matter what part ofthe world you are and how much
is in your bank account,everybody gets the same amount
of time.
Um, how you value your time, uh,you know, is gonna determine
what who you're gonna become andwhat you're gonna accomplish.
So uh anything that can help youbecome efficient with time, you
know, do it.
I I highly recommend it.
(17:08):
Like like AI, things of thatvariety, incorporating
technology, incorporating otherpeople that can help you just
because you have all theknowledge, you got to be able to
share it, maybe teach somebodyelse, mentor somebody else.
And those people are gonna comeback for relationships, you
know.
So uh, but I but I definitely amgetting into the uh I've
probably been a little bit shyon the on the uh social media
aspect.
That's what I'm we're breakingout of that.
(17:29):
Probably I'm gonna I'm removingthat roadblock because you in
order to get somewhere you'venever been, you got to do
something you never done.
You know, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_02 (17:35):
Well, hey, one of one of those steps coming on
this show, and we're gonna makesure this gets pushed out and
and people know more people knowabout you.
Brendan, you you talked about amassive win earlier, um, saving
a client you know almost amillion dollars in in um uh
overdue tax or a bill to theIRS.
Tell me about a time that wasreally hard in the business.
(17:58):
Like you talked about the rollercoasters.
What about one where you'rereally low on the roller
coaster?
You felt like the walls areclosing in, you pushed through,
and it's been transformationalfor you as a as a as an
individual, a business owner forthe firm.
Like, what was what stands outwhere you're like, man, I almost
gave up.
SPEAKER_00 (18:17):
100%.
All right, great.
So there was there was uh uhI'll give you an example.
When I first started thebusiness, had an office, had had
everything, had client files,and all the kind of stuff.
Um, we had this big hurricanethat hit Houston called
Hurricane Harvey, pretty muchdestroyed the city.
Uh everything was underwater.
I lost my office.
Um, and and and I I mean, I theyhave FEMA, which is basically
(18:41):
they help out, you know,individuals and businesses from
the government grants, you know,whatnot.
That's what they usually do.
Um, I had, you know, had myoffice destroyed from from FEMA,
uh, from the hurricane.
And I saw I reached out to FEMA,I reached out, you know, to the
SBA, all this other stuff.
And man, you know, the landlordwas still on a rent, insurance
(19:01):
company was still on insurance,they were filing a claim.
I I got ended up getting deniedon my FEMA claim.
There were no customers comingin because I didn't have a
facility and all of this.
And so uh what I ended up doing,I needed, I was really low.
I mean, there was no moneycoming in.
I was behind rent, I was behindon anything that I could ever,
you could ever imagine I wasbehind on, even where I was
living.
So it ended up happening.
I said, you know what, I'm gonnavolunteer.
(19:23):
And uh I got a call from theIRS, some the IRS liaison
stakeholder when the stakeholderliaison, she had called me
because she knew about me andsaid, Hey, we're here at the uh
the FEMA DRC, which is thedisaster relief center.
We need somebody to help uh helpuh people who have uh haven't
gotten their taxes filed orhaven't you know gotten an issue
(19:44):
resolved with the IRS.
And you're gonna be doing it apro bono, but we need it because
that's the only way they canthey can get a FEMA grant or or
they can get a SBA loan.
And at first I was kind oftaking it back because the place
is pretty far from my house, butI ended up going and I
volunteered, I thought it wasgonna be like two or three
weeks, and we did a lot of taxreturns, people, people who had
needed installment agreements,people who had IRS issues, we
(20:05):
were helping get those resolved,and this is all pro bono.
So I'm I'm putting gas on mycredit card to drive, you know,
40 plus miles away one way, andI'm helping all these people,
and it was really tough for mebecause you know, I wasn't
against, like I said, I wasn'tgetting any money, but what
ended up happening, I felt likeintrinsically really good about
what I was doing.
And uh there was one client thatwe were working on, she had owed
(20:28):
IRS$80,000.
This was like a profit forprofit client, actual customer.
We were still working with herissue, and we were able to get
her issue resolved, which gaveme like proof that man, we can
do this, no problem.
She got had an$80,000 balance,we got it resolved 100%.
She didn't owe the RS any moremoney, and that was going on at
the same time we were dealingwith doing all this pro bono
(20:48):
work.
But that pro bono work ended upa few months later, resulted in
people coming to us to get theirtaxes done or other uh uh
services that you know weweren't even expecting.
Because I wasn't trying to belike HBHR block and all these
other, you know, tax preppeople.
I wasn't trying to do that, Iwas just really focused on
resolution, but doing thatvolunteerism, doing that that
(21:10):
going going deeper than whatyour ditch, your your your your
your valley is, you got to godeeper, outdo your your the
depth inside of yourself, notjust your your environment,
because you because you're gonnabe you know dealing with a lot
of valleys and hills in yourcareer, but that gave me the uh
there's like an inner strength,a second wind that came in,
(21:30):
dude.
And that tax practice for forjust doing tax preparation,
dude, that that came out ofnowhere, and that's really been
consistent throughout all theseyears.
So we we we or organically grewa tax practice, but it came out
of basically giving away.
So so basically we had to die toourselves and and and give up,
let go of whatever we weretrying to do so hard, and but it
(21:53):
made room for something new tocome through, and that's a
mentality thing, that's aspiritual thing that's that's
just you know, life thing,right?
Life lesson.
So that's it.
I mean, like, like again, ouroffice got destroyed.
I ended up having to movelocations, a lot of stuff.
I got my my own FEMA claim wasdenied, my own SBA loan was
denied.
But the I'm helping other peopleget theirs, and then you know,
(22:13):
at the same time, I'm stillworking for people for a person
who you know she trusted us, Ithink January of that year, and
we were still working on thisthing.
It took a year to get the$80,000removed, but we still had a win
for her.
That that really felt good.
That was like a because it endedin December or November or
something like that for her.
But it was just that year, 2017was like pretty tough.
It was it was a pretty toughyear, it was our first year, and
uh, but then in 2018 with thewith the tax people, I didn't
(22:36):
had no idea that she was gonnabe coming to me to get their
taxes done.
It's like, it's the guy I madeat the FEMA DRC, he's the one
who helped us out.
And and man, that just you know,you got a bunch of people coming
to pay you for taxes to getprep.
And I said, Wow, you know,that's not something I plan on
doing, but I'll be open to it.
And that's the other thing,being open.
Like when I when I started thebusiness, dude, I was I was
(22:57):
doing whatever people needed,not just you know, resolution.
I I mean that's what I wanted todo, but I was but if again,
roller coaster to combat it, yougotta be flexible, right?
So if somebody needs to go tothe DMV and get a title change,
yeah, I'll go do that for you.
You know, I I would justwhatever you needed, but but
it's just you know, you yougotta have a focus.
You can't be like a a dog in ahubcat factory and getting shiny
(23:18):
objects in there.
You gotta have a focus,otherwise you lose your purpose.
So so yeah, that's amazing.
SPEAKER_02 (24:20):
That congratulations on on like going through that.
That's and getting onto theother side and facing that
adversity, because that would beyeah, I mean that's that's
really impressive.
SPEAKER_00 (24:33):
You uh one thing I'll say is as your enemy will
help define who you are as thehero.
You gotta be you're there's astory being told.
Are you the hero of the villain?
It's your story.
What who do you want to be?
You know.
Um uh Anakin Skywalker becameDog Veda.
You know, he was a hero atfirst, he became a villain.
It's just who do you want yourstory?
What do you want to be told?
Everybody gets time, you know.
(24:53):
You gotta what happens in timeis gonna define who you are, who
you become.
You know, you have goals andthings, but what you do at your
time matters.
You gotta have proper timemanagement.
SPEAKER_02 (25:03):
I I follow Alex Hermozzi a lot, and uh he speaks
he speaks a lot about um youknow having to go through all
those hard times and like goingthrough the the darkness and the
the depths because if you wereto go watch a movie and just
right away the person neverdealt with any adversity and
(25:24):
just life was amazing, wouldn'tbe much of a movie to watch.
You wouldn't be cheering theperson on, but you cheer on the
the main character, the hero whohas to go through all the dips
and learns and keeps growing andthen all of a sudden achieves
the goal.
So that's something I try toremind myself of when things get
really hard.
It's like, look, this is justit's redefining and we're just
(25:47):
gonna keep moving forward.
SPEAKER_00 (25:49):
Man, you're so right.
Wow, Al Tremose.
I'm gonna check, I'm gonna checkthem out.
SPEAKER_02 (25:52):
He's got some amazing stuff, he's got some
some really good stuff.
SPEAKER_00 (25:55):
I love that.
Always look for you know, roomfor growth, always improve, you
know.
I mean, I mean, so uh I I gleanfrom anything like that.
A lot of people we learn from,you know, they've already lived
life, you know, they've probablypassed away, or they got a video
or a book or something.
Um, you know, I try to glean,and obviously you meet people in
time who are on that journeywith you.
You're gonna find as you gothrough life, you know, when you
(26:19):
have a certain um, I guess thisis one way to put it, like the
more real you get, the moreunreal life can get.
You know, so so once as you'reon that journey, you got
mentality, you're gonna you'regonna find other people that are
maybe on that journey in anunspoken way, and y'all just
gravitate to each other, youfind each other in this life,
you know, in this universe,whatnot, and and you're gonna
(26:40):
find a collective effort.
And you know, maybe y'all canhelp each other again, sharpen
iron sharp as iron, and and andyou know, help helping each
other like grow more, get offthe milk, get on to the meat.
Um, and so you know, it just asyou begin to take those steps,
you know, you know, a thousandmile journey starts with the
first step, you know.
So as you begin to take thosesteps, you're gonna find other
(27:01):
people on that journey with you,and you you're gonna get help
when you need it, when you leastexpect it, I guess.
When you least expect it.
SPEAKER_02 (27:06):
And and being open again to receiving that help.
So I think a lot of peoplethey're they they they're closed
off, they don't want help, theywear it as uh it yeah.
So being open to being receptiveto to help.
Two more questions for you,Brandon.
Yes, sir.
Um, if if I could wave a magicwand at your business and help
(27:27):
you with anything going on, whatwould that be?
SPEAKER_00 (27:31):
Uh that's that's I guess content production, uh
help helping uh outreach,market, marketing, marketing,
some marketing, um, and and andjust like because it could help
me get the message out, likepeople let people know that we
exist.
Um and then you know, if youneed any help or or or anything
(27:51):
we can do, let us know.
I mean, not just from a from aresolution standpoint, RS
business standpoint, uhstandpoint, but even just as a
friend, uh mentor, I thinkeverybody should have a mentor
and everybody should have amentee.
You know, uh that's one thingI've also observed that that
helps people because you getcaught up in so much of whatever
(28:12):
the humdrum of whatever you'redoing, but if you don't have a
vision, um you're gonna lose thelove of it, right?
So if you have a mentor that'sguiding you, keeping you humble,
you're able to do the same withsomebody else.
And when you invest in somebodyelse, it gives you room to
outpour whatever comes in you,but you can also receive more
from another source.
So uh you can't just keep it allyou know inside.
(28:36):
You know, you gotta, if you lookat it, anything that's living
tries to be to do do its bestpotential, except for human
beings.
Like a tree is gonna grow as youknow high as it can grow, uh, a
fish is gonna swim as much asthey can swim.
Uh, you know, uh it justmountain is gonna be as strong
and bold as it can be, uhdepending on what what the
mountain was inside thatmountain.
(28:57):
But it's just you know, yougotta you gotta like you gotta
do your best.
But it's a choice too.
You know, it's a choice if youwant to be your best.
No, you don't have to be yourbest, but you know, it's highly
recommended.
If you have gifts and qualities,you gotta use them.
You know, uh you gotta use them.
So otherwise they become staleand sour.
SPEAKER_02 (29:15):
I love it.
It's so insightful.
So this is a great segue.
Um, last question for you.
What's the best piece of adviceyou've ever received?
You've already you've alreadylisted so much, but I'm just
curious if there's anything elsethat comes off the top, like the
best piece of advice you've everreceived.
SPEAKER_00 (29:32):
That's most comforting is uh you are enough.
Because that's still sometimes,dude, it's kind of hard to
believe.
But but if but if but somebodysaid I am enough, like like you
are enough.
I mean, I you it sounds verycommon and basic, but it the
realization of it is theactualization, the acceptance of
(29:53):
it, you know, that's it'ssometimes can be hard to swallow
because you're always trying toimprove and do this and the
other.
It's like, man, you know, uh,but but you like man, I am
enough.
If you have that in your mindand your concept, I think it's a
very freeing, a freeing uh uhconcept.
SPEAKER_02 (30:11):
You know, you are you know it's it's it it sounds
so calm, and it's so simple.
That's a nice reminder.
Appreciate you sharing that.
Brandon, thank you so much forfor coming on, sharing all of
your insight.
This has been amazing.
Where can everyone get in touchwith you if they want to
continue the conversation withyou?
They need your help with um anyof the services you offer, the
(30:33):
the partnerships, the the jointventures.
How can people get in touch withyou?
SPEAKER_00 (30:36):
Gotcha, gotcha, got you.
So I'm on LinkedIn.
Uh my name Brandon Ajay, uh CPA,I'm on LinkedIn, but we have a
website that we're working onright now.
It's going to be Bar GraphSolutions.
Uh uh, we call ourselves BGS,but but Bargraph Solutions uh
bar is just like sound like itsounds like a bar graph.
And then solutionsplural uh.com.
(30:57):
We're we're working on thatthat's not up right now.
The current website that we haveis uh cpa-asap uh.com.
It's a it's a https securewebsite, uh, but but that one is
kind of like the current one,but but we're but bar graph
solutions is coming up.
But I'm on LinkedIn and ifanybody emails info in F O at
(31:19):
bargraphsolutions.com, they canget us as well.
SPEAKER_02 (31:22):
Awesome.
We'll make sure that's in theshow notes if people can get in
touch with you.
Brandon, I I can't thank youenough.
It's been it was long overdue,but I'm I'm so glad we did it.
Thanks again.
SPEAKER_00 (31:30):
Worth the way, man.
You it was worth the way to talkwith you, man.
Definitely appreciate you.
Felt great with this and uh justgreat questions.
And just, you know, thank youfor letting us come on your
platform.
SPEAKER_02 (31:39):
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of CFO
Chronicles, the secrets behindsuccess.
I hope you found value intoday's conversation.
As we wrap up, I'd love for youto do two things.
First, make sure to subscribe tothis podcast so you don't miss
any future episodes.
If you enjoyed today'sdiscussion, please rate and
review the show.
It helps others discover theinsights we share here.
(32:00):
Second, if you're ready to takeyour business to the next level
and attract the high-end clientsyou deserve, head over to
accountingleadsnow.com or clickthe link in the show notes to
book your strategy call.
It's time to position yourselfas the advisor your clients
need.
And don't forget, you canconnect with me on LinkedIn to
stay up to date on what'shappening in the world of
accounting and financial growth.
We've got exciting topics comingup, so stay tuned for the next
(32:23):
episode of CFO Chronicles.
Until then, keep pushingforward.
Your growth is just onestrategic move away.
SPEAKER_01 (32:31):
Thanks for listening to CFO Chronicles, the secrets
behind success.
We hope today's episode providedvaluable strategies to help you
attract more high-payingclients.
Be sure to subscribe, follow,and share with fellow
professionals.
Connect with us on LinkedIn andleave a review or comment to
join the conversation.
(32:51):
Your feedback helps us bring youthe best insights in finance and
marketing.
Until next time, keep strivingfor success and unlocking your
business's potential.
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